Hello and thanks for visiting On a Road to Nowhere. My name is Kenny Nowhere, I’m the founder and author of this humble little travel blog.
I’ve never had a corporate job and I haven’t been to hundreds of countries. I certainly don’t make a six-figure salary running a travel blog.
’m just a regular working-class dude who loves to travel and wants to share that love with all of you. Does that sound corny? Well, maybe it does. Maybe it’s okay to be corny sometimes.
Traveling has changed my life and opened my eyes to the beauty and resilience that exists in the world. I believe travel can and should be more than just getting drunk on a beach or ticking a list of popular sites off a list.
Travel should be about making connections with both the places you visit and the people who live in those places. It should open your eyes to the varied and wonderful people who live in our huge, beautiful world. It should also be about seeing those people as people, not just background props for our own adventures.
I believe that as tourists from rich countries, whether we’re vacationing for a long weekend or backpacking for a year, should learn the history of the places we’re visiting and to try and understand the ways colonialism and capitalist exploitation have affected the people there. We also have a responsibility to travel in a way that supports local communities rather than exploiting them. I plan to write in more detail about this one of these days.
My Story…
When I was a little kid, I used to spend hours poring over maps and imagining the places that existed in those far-off mysterious lands with names I couldn’t pronounce. I spent my late teenage years working a series of shitty jobs to save up for a pre-packaged tour of Southern Europe. Aside from that, though, most of those exotic lands on the map remained out of reach.
In 2013, after reading stories of budget travelers and backpackers, I decided to make my first solo trip to Central America. I went to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and it blew my damn mind. I was bit and severely infected by the travel bug.
In 2019, my future wife and I needed more than yearly vacations could offer, so we decided to quit our jobs and move to China. I said goodbye to the fast-paced world of grocery stocking and landed a job teaching English to wide-eyed seven- and eight-year-olds. I had a blast. That is, until the pandemic hit and we weren’t allowed to leave our apartment for three months.
Still, aside from that small hiccup, we managed to visit Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand as well as numerous locales around China. I also learned a lot about the trials and tribulations of living overseas, and dare I say it, myself.
The Longest Honeymoon…
However, once the authorities took down the barricade (literally), we decided it was time to say goodbye to China.
We returned to the United States, tied the knot, and embarked on what was supposed to be a six-month journey through Latin America. Our trip kept getting extended and extended and extended. In the end, those six months turned into a year and a half.
During that epic journey, we traveled down the spine of the Americas, starting in Guatemala and ending all the way down at the Southern end of Chile. We even bopped into Mexico on the way back home. We traveled slow and did our best to dig deep into the countries and cultures we visited. Despite traveling for over a year, we still didn’t get to visit every country we wanted to. Sorry, Brazil and Bolivia, we’ll get to you one day. I have no regrets. It was basically the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Like all cool things, though, our trip eventually had to come to an end. We’d spent nearly every single cent of the money we’d earned in China. There was nothing left to do but return to the United States with empty bank accounts and little more than what we’d managed to cram into our backpacks.
Life in the United States and the Disappointment of Travel Blogs
And that just about brings us to date. Health and family and money issues have kept us tied to the United States longer than we’d anticipated. I’ve accepted this for now, but I’m living cheap and saving for the next big adventure. And of course, blogging about our adventures in the meantime.
Someday, I would love for this blog to earn me a six-figure income. Hell, I’d be happy to earn a three-figure income blogging. I’d be much happier, though, if I could earn money while being able to sleep at night.
While traveling, we relied on travel blogs, but found most of them sorely lacking. First of all, and worst of all, is how disrespectful many travel bloggers are to the local people and the countries. I’ve found this most common in budget travel blogs that seem obsessed with getting the lowest price for everything, regardless of the ethics involved. I found almost zero information about what the astounding trials and tribulations the local people may have gone through.
Secondly, many travel blogs seem to just rehash the same things to do in every country or city. It’s not like these places lack interesting things to see and do! Maybe it becomes a sort of vicious cycle, where one blogger does something, and then everyone thinks those are the only things to do. Or it’s also possible that a lot of bloggers are really just lazy.
Finally, many blogs feel more like marketing pitches than information. Most blogs are trying to sell you something, but beyond the standard sponsored links or premium content, some travel blogs will sell harder than a used car salesman with an upcoming boat payment. Some even flat out lied to get readers to click sponsored links, claiming tours are impossible to reach in advance, or that the local bus is dangerous so you need to use the expensive tourist shuttle their advertising.
I Want On a Road to Nowhere to be a Better Travel Blog
As I keep writing and hopefully getting more readers, I’m now starting to walk a tightrope. I’m balancing search engine optimization and placing affiliate links with writing in an authentic way that doesn’t make me feel like I’m selling out.
Number one, I try to be respectful to the local people no matter where traveling to. When it comes down to it, we’re guests in every country we travel to. The people of these faraway lands have done us the incredible kindness of opening their homes and sharing their countries with us. The least we can do is treat them with respect. That includes paying attention to cultural norms, and occasionally having to pay more money for things, but in general it means not being an asshole. You’d be surprised how hard this is for some tourists.
Next, I will always give my honest opinion about a place or an activity. If I don’t like it, I’ll tell you. I can’t promise to always offer super exciting off-the-beaten path travel ideas, but I do always try and avoid the tourist traps. And I can definitely promise to always be honest about the things I write about. If I think something sucks, I’ll tell you.
Finally, I am going to try and sell you things. But I will do my best to ensure that any sponsored or affiliate links will be clearly labeled. (If I ever forget, please let me know.) I’m also never going to recommend anything I haven’t used personally. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read blogs recommending 10 different hotels in the same city. It’s annoying.
I will also openly admit that I occasionally use AI, such as ChatGPT for things like help with outlining posts or search engine optimization. However, I will absolutely never let AI write an article for me. That would take all the fun out of it.
Phew, now that I’ve said all that, please kick back, grab yourself a beer or whatever and enjoy my humble little corner of the internet. Feel free to contact me or leave a comment if you want to say hello or maybe you want to disagree with anything I’ve written. Just don’t forget to subscribe to the email list to keep up to date on the latest posts. Hopefully I’ll see you someday down the road!
